As a Japanese lawyer studying in the United States, I came across CCR’s case Hassan v. City of New York, a lawsuit challenging the blanket surveillance and religious profiling of Muslim communities. The case – and the principles it upholds – seems particularly important now, as I watch political candidates call for discriminatory measures against Muslims. I learned of the case while doing research for my own litigation in Japan challenging a more severe version of the program, one that monitors virtually every Muslim person in the country.

The already tense atmosphere in the East China Sea ratcheted up a notch this past week when China declared a new air defense identification zone. The United States’ flight of a pair of B-52 bombers through that zone on Monday further highlighted the potential for conflict in the contested area.

This August, former USALI scholar Elizabeth Lynch conducted a three-part interview with Rachel Stern, assistant professor of law and politics at UC Berkeley, on China’s environmental litigation and environmental rights movement. This is the first part of the series.

Xu Zhiyong, a lawyer for the underprivileged, knew he risked his freedom by challenging the Chinese Communist Party to fulfill its vows to fight corruption and promote the rule of law. His fight made him one of China’s best known human-rights advocates, and it has now landed him in prison.

Last week President Ma completed the first year of his second term in office. I had high expectations for this president, a “legal professional” who once served as the Minister of Justice. For the past five years, through several articles such as “President Ma’s Judicial Exam,” “Shouldering the Responsibility for Judicial Reform, Expectations for the President with a Legal Background,” etc., I have expressed the hope that during his term there would be substantial progress in judicial reform

This book offers a unique insight into the role of human rights lawyers in Chinese law and politics. In her extensive account, Eva Pils shows how these practitioners are important as legal advocates for victims of injustice and how bureaucratic systems of control operate to subdue and marginalise them.

For over sixty million Americans, possessing a criminal record over¬shadows everything else about their public identity. A rap sheet, or even a court appearance or background report that reveals a run-in with the law, can have fateful consequences for a person’s inter¬actions with just about everyone else. The Eternal Criminal Record (Harvard) makes transparent an all-pervading system of police databases and identity-screening that has become a routine feature of American life.

Beijing’s hardline stance has set the stage for a dramatic showdown with Hong Kong’s democrats. After months of mobilization and counter-mobilization by democrats and anti-democrats, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) has finally spoken on Hong Kong’s chief executive electoral arrangements for 2017.

This compilation of papers brings together some of China’s leading voices on gender and the law. The Gender and Law Expert group was brought together by the Ford Foundation at Wellesley College in September 2009. These experts are defined by the significant individual and collective mark they have left on China’s gender and law landscape.

China has implemented an initial wave of death penalty reforms that returned final review power of all capital cases to the Supreme People’s Court and reportedly significantly curbed executions. After reviewing recent legal developments concerning capital cases, this Article explores how the initial push to reduce use of the death penalty has given way to a more complex and nuanced debate over what factors should determine when the death penalty is appropriate.

China’s human rights lawyers are currently experiencing unprecedented persecution. Over the past 40 days, six lawyers have been taken away by the police and disappeared. Dozens of other rights defenders, activists and dissidents have also been taken away; and one of the lawyers has resurfaced under circumstances suggesting that he was badly tortured.

The already tense atmosphere in the East China Sea ratcheted up a notch this past week when China declared a new air defense identification zone.The United States’ fight of a pari of B-52 bombers through that zone on Monday further highlighted the potential for conflict in the contested area. The legal issues involved in the use of the sea, are intellectually intriguing for an academic who studies international law. The political realities of this increasingly tough neighborhood, however, are frightening.

In the short span of two decades, Taiwan has gone from a repressive, authoritarian state under martial law to a vibrant democracy.’ This stunning political change has received worldwide attention. Less well-known is the striking overhaul of Taiwan’s criminal justice system that has accompanied these political changes.

Since I arrived in the United States on May 19, people have asked me, “What do you want to do here?” I have come here to study temporarily, not to seek political asylum. And while I pursue my studies, I hope that the Chinese government and the Communist Party will conduct a thorough investigation of the lawless punishment inflicted on me and my family over the past seven years.